PM says US Lockheed Martin plant 'creates' security for Poland

The Polish prime minister has said Lockheed Martin, the US military equipment manufacturer, “creates Poland’s security”.

Mateusz Morawiecki made the comment during a press briefing following a visit to a Lockheed Martin aviation plant in Marietta, Georgia.

The prime minister is in the US on a three-day official visit.

"The Lockheed Martin plant not only creates military equipment, it also creates Poland's security," Morawiecki said.

He added that his visit to the plant was dictated by the need to hasten supplies of US-made military equipment bought by Poland.

Referring to Poland's purchase of Lockheed's F-35 fighter aircraft, Morawiecki said that the planes were the most advanced of their kind in the world, and that possessing them put Poland in the small elite of countries that operated them.

Morawiecki also said his talks in the US concerned the purchase of JASSM-XR missiles.

"My extended talks here have been very fruitful and I think our cooperation will be broadened. Perhaps we will be able to acquire extended-range missiles," Morawiecki said.